Top Gear American Fly-Drive special, Feb. 11th show Options

[Part Pricer]

This week's Top Gear was one of the funniest TV shows I've seen in a long time. I watched this last night with my wife and even she was laughing. (She normally hates car shows)

If you get a chance, check it out.

If any of you caught the episode in the last series where the lads went caravanning, I think you'll agree that, bar a few hiccups, it all went rather well. In fact, even as we watched the firemen put the last of the flames out, there was a general agreement that Jeremy, Richard and James should try this holiday lark again, and so, this week, you'll be able to see their American Fly-Drive special.

The trip began in Miami, Florida, but instead of renting some dull saloon with white paint and velour trim from Avis, the three of them were each given $1,000 and a morning to see if they could buy an interesting car - a car with a few character lines around its grille, and a few stories to tell - for the same money you'd spend on a fortnight's rental.

As it turned out, the buying alone was worth a film, because $1,000 doesn't actually get you much any more, which meant our expat trio spiralled further and further down the food-chain of Miami's car culture, until they ended up in a part of the city where the car dealers were outnumbered by the crack dealers.

Clarkson's salesman, for example, broke out his handgun and telescopic-sighted rifle much more often than he did his Glass's Guide. Eventually though, cars were bought.

Jeremy, typically, overstretched himself and bought a five-litre Chevy Camaro, the murderer's muscle car of choice. In fact, it even had the shirt of the last hitchhiker victim stuffed in the boot.

James, true to form, returned with a 15-year-old shagged Cadillac that had its suspension tuned by a trampoline maker, and Hammond, always a big fan of Brokeback Mountain, arrived in a battered old Dodge pick-up truck.

With the buying done, the adventure really began. The TG holiday cars had to be tested, so they headed north on an 800-mile road trip that aimed to take them up through Florida, across Alabama and Mississippi to the finish point of New Orleans. That's a tough trip for bargain basement cars that even the lowest low life in Miami wouldn't be seen in.

But to make life even harder, there were naturally some Top Gear challenges along the way. So tune in to see what happens when the boys run into the Stig's hillbilly cousin and find out what they cook up when they have to live off roadkill. If that little lot doesn't kill them, will the Alabama Inflammatory Statement Down The Side Of the Car Challenge finish the job?